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Detail

This qualitative research explored General Practitioners’ views of a possible new support service to help employed people who are off sick from work to return to work quickly and prevent them from falling out of paid employment. Six focus groups took place in August and September 2012 and a total of 39 GPs took part.

The Independent Review of Sickness Absence (Black and Frost, 2011) recommended development of this type of service and this research aimed to inform the Government’s consideration of the recommendation. The Government is in the final stages of preparing its Response and will publish shortly.

Other research has shown that many employees of smaller firms do not have access to occupational health advice. One in 10 small employers provided employees with access to occupational health services in the previous year, compared to eight in 10 large employers.